One of the most important things that Cheryl stresses to us is to always be aware of the case. This would be the front display case where the customers see all of the deliciousness that is Bittersweet Confections!
There are always many, many items in the case at any one time and let me tell you when a couple of things are missing you can really tell. This is such an important part of my job because if there are no items in the case, then there is nothing to sell.
The left side of the case is full of all of the beautiful truffles that we have to offer. Each truffle is hand made and there are so many flavors to choose from that are all delectable. Look for more delicious details in a future post. lol
The right side of the case is our domain, meaning Grace (my co-worker) and I. We help with the truffles too, but the right side of the case is where we shine. :) The top shelf is always full of cupcakes that we prepare each day. There are both filled and un-filled cupcakes and there are of course flavors that are there every day and some that make special appearances, but talking about the amazing cupcakes will be yet another post.
This week I also prepared some peanut butter cups, cheesecakes, and petit fours for the case. The peanut butter cups are not exactly what you would imagine. We first create a chocolate shell by painting chocolate into the wax paper cup and then pipe the peanut butter ganache into the shell and decorate with a couple of macados, a white chocolate/ chocolate striped decoration. The painting of the shells can get quite time consuming so this week we are trying out some premade chocolate shells ordered from the same swiss chocolate company. So, same great chocolate, but a little bit easier for us. Win, win if you ask me!
Cheryl had me try out a new recipe for personal sized cheesecakes that turned out to be so easy, but delicious and creamy all the same. We baked the cheesecakes in muffin liners for the personal size and then tried out a couple of different ways to serve them. First we prepared a sweetened sour cream sauce to spread on the cheesecake and then topped that with some fresh fruit. They looked a little small that way so we then decided to try something similar to the way we prepared the cupcakes for the Music in the Park series from last month. (see previous post) We took the clear plastic cup and spooned some fruit compote in the bottom of the cup, placed the unwrapped cheesecake on top and then spooned on some additional compote, topped it with a dollop of fresh whipped cream and a strawberry half. We decided that was a little too much compote so we changed it up a bit. The cheesecake is baked with a graham cracker crust so we came up with our final winner (I think). I used the same plastic cup and spooned some graham cracker crumbs into the bottom, placed the unwrapped cheesecake on top and spooned some compote on top of that, piped a little whipped cream and placed either a strawberry half or a few blueberries on top. When I took my break later in the day I noticed a man had ordered one and the next thing I knew I saw him licking out the cup! Winner!!!!
I also prepared some petit fours for the case this week. Most people think of a petit four as a small bite sized cake, but it can actually be any small dessert that is about two bites. Petit fours can also be savory, but most consider a petit four to be something sweet for a dessert. Our petit fours are made of simply of almond cake that is covered with a poured fondant and decorated with a buttercream swirl and a little fondant decoration like a flower like in the my picture below. Grace and I are talking about making little snowflakes or ornaments for the petit fours during the holidays. Other petit fours that I have made in the past have a thin layer of raspberry jam between two layers or on the top of the cake before the fondant is poured over, but this is not always done.
I am learning so much and even though I am missing my Tallahassee family I am having a blast just soaking up all of this pastry chefness. Is that even a word???? Well, it is now! :)
You know what comes next........Keep it Sweet people!!
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